Textile-based technologies are considered as potential routes for the production of 3D porous architectures for tissue engineering applications. We describe the use of two polymers, namely polybutylene succinate (PBS) and silk fibroin (SF) to produce fibre-based finely tuned porous architectures by weft and warp knitting. PBS is here originally proposed as a viable extruded multifilament fibre to be processed by a textile-based technology. A comparative study is established using a SF fibre with similar linear density. The obtained knitted constructs are described in terms of their morphology, mechanical properties, swelling ability, degradation behaviour and cytotoxicity. The presented fibres allow for the processing of a very reproducible intra-architectural scaffold geometry, that is fully interconnected, and thus providing a high surface area for cell attachment and tissue ingrowth. Each type of polymer fibres can allow for the generation of constructs with distinct characteristics in terms of the surface physicochemistry, mechanical performance and degradation capability, which has an impact on the resulting cell behaviour at the surface of the respective biotextiles. Preliminary cytotoxicity screening shows that both materials can support cell adhesion and proliferation. Furthermore, different surface modifications were performed (acid/alkaline treatment, UV radiation and plasma) for modulating cell behavior. Human Adipose-derived Stem Cells (hASCs) became an emerging possibility for tissue replacement therapies. The potential of recently the developed silk-based biotextile structures to promote hASCs adhesion, proliferation and differentiation is also evaluated. These results constitute a first validation step of the two biotextiles as viable matrices for TE prior to the development of more complex systems. Given the processing efficacy and versatility of the knitting technology and the interesting structural and surface properties of the proposed polymer fibres, it is foreseen that our developed systems can be attractive for the functional engineering of tissues such as bone, skin, ligaments or cartilage.
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